Electronic based transactions for goods and services may be typically instantiated using a website. The website may operate on a client, such as a client computer, and in addition to being connected to the Internet, may communicate with a server, such as a server computer. The web site may display different goods and services and the server may be used to complete financial transactions or process a goods and/or services order. The website may access the server using an application program interface (API) provided by the server.
When a client computer adds new functionality it is important that the communication between the client computer and the server be tested with the new functionality. Testing of a client computer may be conducted by the client computer connecting to the server, and the client computer sending to the server computer dummy or test transactions using the API. The server may simulate those transactions and provide dummy responses while offline. In this manner, the interaction between the client and the server can be verified before the client and server are placed into production.
New features or functionality are typically added to the client and server. In order to test the interaction between the server and the client, the server must be upgraded and the API expanded to accommodate the new features and functions. Adding this new functionality requires that the new functionality be debugged on both the client and the server. Debugging the simulation adds to the development time and must be performed before the testing of the client/server interaction can be conducted. Consequently the time period before a web site can go live with new features and functionality may be extended.